Because of such societywide factors as fewer first marriages, couples opting not to have children, a rise in the divorce rate, and a decline in the remarriage rate, the school population is, and probably will continue, declining. The effects of this decline will be greater than most people anticipate. Because conditions vary so much from district to district, it is up to the local district to search out information about local trends. Private industry has provided some positive examples of adaptive behavior that the schools should examine. One approach to declining enrollment is that taken by the Salt Lake City schools where the student population has dropped from 43,000 to 27,000 in 10 years. The district has closed 24 schools in an orderly and systematic way that takes into consideration community views as well as educational and economic necessities. Declining school enrollments are going to make inservice education more important and challenge the field to develop a new generation of school administrators who are skillful at the process of adjusting a school to a decline in growth. (Author?IRT)